You might have tried using shape styles to change the shape of WordArt and then were puzzled that the text didn’t change. Use the text options in the WordArt Styles group instead. Shape styles and effects apply to the box and background surrounding your WordArt, not to the WordArt text. So, to add effects to your WordArt, such as shadows, rotation, curves, and fill and outline colors, you use the options in the WordArt Styles group, including Text Fill, Text Outline, and Text Effects.

Note: Depending on your screen size, you might only see the icons for WordArt Styles.

You can use WordArt to add special text effects to your document. For example, you can stretch a title, skew text, make text fit a preset shape, or apply a gradient fill. This WordArt becomes an object that you can move or position in your document to add decoration or emphasis. You can modify or add to the text in an existing WordArt object whenever you want.

Do the following for all programs listed in the Applies To at the top of the article.

Double-click the WordArt that you want to remove to select it, and then press DELETE.

In Office Online you can see WordArt that’s already in your document, presentation, or worksheet, but to add more WordArt you need to open or edit the doc in the desktop version of Word, PowerPoint, or Excel.

In Office Online, you can use the Font features on the Home tab to change the font color and size, and apply bolding, italics, or underlines to your text. To use WordArt text effects, you’ll need to open your presentation in desktop Word, PowerPoint, or Excel (if you have the desktop versions), and add them there:

If you have a desktop version of Word, from the Word_Online click Edit Document > Edit in Word, or use the Open in Word command to open your document in Word.

On the Insert tab, click WordArt.

If you have a desktop version of PowerPoint or Excel, open it by selecting Open in PowerPoint (in PowerPoint Online) or Open in Excel (in Excel Online).